Ever feel like your body just needs a ‘detox’? All the over-indulgence of the holidays (because they just seem to keep coming!), and you feel like your body is craving something healthy and nutritious? I know this happens to me frequently. Of course, I admit, I splurge a little to often!

This salad (which from what I have gathered, originated from Whole Foods, but I adapted this recipe) is not only super healthy, it is super delicious!

If you were to hand me a bunch of broccoli, cauliflower and kale on a plate, I would say “no, thank you” – but somehow, when they are all chopped up together with a little fruit and seeds and a very light dressing – it transforms them into a bowl full of goodness. A bowl of this salad also packs quite a nutritional punch, giving you a good dose of super foods!

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, process the broccoli, cauliflower, kale and parsley until fine and add them to a large mixing bowl. (It will probably take more than one batch)

Process the carrots and add to the bowl.

Stir to combine.

Add the sunflower seeds, almonds, and dried fruit.

Stir to combine.

Add lemon juice, vinegar and syrup.

Toss to coat.

Taste, and add salt and/or pepper as needed.

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Warning, this recipe does make a HUGE bowl of salad, but it keeps in the refrigerator for several days. With all the “bugs” floating around right now, I am happy to have a little immunity boosting salad in my fridge! If I could just get my kids to eat it….

Our focus for April here on EaH is going to be everything earthy. We’ll talk gardens and gardening, vegetables, farmer’s markets, meatless dinners… Not every post will follow this topic, but many will.

If you’ve been reading this blog very long, you know I don’t tackle these topics often. Not that I don’t have meatless and vegetarian meal recipes, and we do eat vegetables, of course. I’ve even got a few posts on square foot gardening. But this topic isn’t the most natural (pun intended) for me to write about.

You can see this tomato tree on the Living with the Land ride in Epcot. The ride takes you on a tour of green houses where they are doing some amazing things with growing plants and even fish and alligators. This tomato tree blows my mind. I think they said they harvest something like 40 bazillion cherry tomatoes off of it.

Sweet success! It was just one ripe strawberry, but it tasted good and it was from our very own garden. My 6 year old shared it with me. We probably could have left it to ripen in the sun another day or two, but we couldn’t wait.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated on our garden boxes. On Mother’s Day weekend we planted tomatoes, basil, peppers, cucumber, and parsley. The cucumber got broken off, so that was replaced a few days later. I’m not sure this one is going to survive either though, because we had a very late frost earlier in the week. My basil took a hit, although it will probably survive. One tomato plant looks kind of pitiful.

I shared a few weeks ago that we are attempting to grow our own produce in the backyard. Although we have no grand ideas about growing all the veggies we eat, we do have high hopes for tomatoes and a few other things. My husband and kids planted a few things about 1 1/2 weeks ago and they are coming up now.

That box holds not just dirt, but the promise of garden fresh veggies that I can cook up in my kitchen this summer. Have you noticed how many people are starting to garden? People who have never grown anything in their lives are planting gardens in the backyard. Count me in as one of those folks. It’s been 15 years since I’ve grown a tomato in my own garden and I’ve been hankering to do it again ever since. This is finally my year.